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The Office

This is my office which I built during the summer. I live in a two-room apartment, meaning I had to build the office in the bedroom, so I decided to work on clearly defining the two different types of spaces. The shelves frame the office by shooting directly out from the wall, hanging on wires, which helps give the dark, heavy mahogni-wood a lighter appearance. I tried applying this expression to the tables also, eliminating all connections to the ground. The space this way is sort of slized up horizontally, with each layer representing a different level of the office, with different functionality (computer/drawing table, work table and archiving).

I also built a raised floor to further define the "office-zone". The idea is to eventually get a carpet in the "bedroom-zone" to further amplify the contrast.

Something which is still a work in progress is a hidden drawer placed on top of the desk. this holds and hides power outlets, USB-hubs, HDDs, cable-clutter etc. etc.

Most of the wood used is FSC-certified.

Oh by the way, if anyone considers placing their Mac like I did, don't! That trick torched my mainboard in a couple of days, as the vents are facing down.

Can you share more about how you made those wire-supported book shelves? What did you bolt them into the wall with, and how much weight do you think they can hold? I'm moving in the fall into a small space and would love to build a similar bookshelf as that. Even a link to the site that showed you would be super-helpful. :)

Concerning how much weight they should be able to hold, it's kind of hard to tell. Really it depends mostly on the strength of the wire, the threaded hooks, the shelf-material, and of course the wall to which they're attached. Most important is to have the hooks screwed really firmly into the wall, as most of the pressure placed on the shelves will be transferred directly to the hooks pulling outwards at whatever angle the cable is in. I had a good amount of weight put on there in books with no problem, but if you want longer shelves or more than three, I would probably suggest considering either more hooks or stronger ones, or maybe have an extra set of wires supporting the shelves midway.

This is my own design, so there's not really a site that I can link to I'm afraid.

Hi. thanks for the comment. I used threaded hooks to fix the wire to the wall, then used two U-shaped brackets for each shelf to keep the shelves in place against the wall.

After that, I basically just ran the wire around each hook and pulled it down through holes I'd drilled in the wood, using wire clamps to support the shelves and adjust the height to get the shelves properly leveled.

If you plan to make a similar system, I suggest you take into account the type of wood and what the shelves are for. I used mahogany, which is pretty strong, so a long span between the walls and the wire-support was ok, but using one shelf for heavy books did cause the wood to bend a little, so try and place your holes strategically, especially if you're using a weak/cheap sort of wood.

Let me know if any of that was unclear or if you have any other questions :)

Pretty nifty! I mostly like that 'picture rack' thing you have up on the wall there.. is that flat or curved? In the picture is sort of look like it curves outward from the wall. Which would be awesome if it did! How is it mounted up there?

Thank you :) The frame is curved yes. The idea came about because of the paintings, which illustrate the four seasons in China. I thought it would be cool if I could somehow illustrate the cyclical nature of that in the design of the frame, so I ended up with a curved frame which was intended to look like part of a full circle shooting out of the wall. It might not be visible from the picture, but there are spotlights placed underneath each painting. The frame is mounted by two steel wires attached to hooks screwed into the wall.

cool. Maybe you'll actually get the instructable done that I never did :) If you have any questions about the frame, feel free to ask. I'm in the middle of preparing another frame for a batik, where I also intend to use a curved design, just on a vertical level. I plan on documenting this and make an ible once I have the time to actually get started on the project

sorry for the late reply. The tables were attached to the walls using some heavy duty brackets. The large table was also supported on the side in the corner by a piece of wood, screwed into the wall. It was solid enough to stand on :)

Thank you. I would've liked to make an instructable of some of these items, but I made most of it before I became aware of Instructables. I have considered reassembling parts of it as I need to make some upgrades, so maybe then it will be possible to create an instructable. In the mean time, if you have any questions as to how any of this was made, feel free to ask :)

The frame for the paintings or the entire thing? The frame was really made from left-overs from the shelves, so in itself it wasn't to expensive. I think the most expensive part was the spotlights that went into it actually. I would think the entire frame including lights could be done for roughly $100-150, but that's using mahogany wood and with Danish prices, so it might be cheaper to pull off in the states. the entire office though I think must have run up to about $1500-2000 or so, but definitely could have been done cheaper using different materials. especially since the dark wood also requires a lot more lighting to compensate and make the space comfortable to be in as it absorbs a lot of light.

About This Instructable

Bio:I'm an Industrial Designer. I've always had an interest in building things. I believe it's important for designers to be in touch with their materials and how to construct and manufacture the products...read more »